1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recording device for recording or printing various information such as images and letters on a recording medium such as a card, and more particularly to a recording device having constituent components including a printer unit, which are rationally arranged to heighten the processing efficiency and have high degree of freedom in design and make the device compact.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Card recording devices such as a card printer for recording or printing various image information on a card base of plastic or the like to produce credit cards, license cards and other ID cards have become to be widely used.
In general, the recording device of this kind comprises a card supply stacker for accommodating blank cards, a processing unit including a thermal-transfer printer, and a card discharge container to which a finished card is sent out. These operation components constituting a conventional recording device are arranged along one card transfer passage which generally extends straight horizontally.
The processing unit includes not only the printer, but also a magnetic encoder for magnetically recording information on the card, a laminator for coating the recorded surface of the card, and so on. In any case, all the operation components in the conventional device are placed in a row along the card transfer passage extending straight.
There has been a need for a compact or portable recording device capable of being easily handled and effectively and securely recording desired information on a card. However, in order to make the recording device compact, the conventional device having the operation components arranged linearly on one straight card passage has had no alternative but to narrow the distance between the adjacent operation components. Particularly, there has been a tendency for the conventional device to place the card printer unit close to the card supply stacker in order to make the arrangement compact. That is, the conventional recording device is usually designed to straight feed the blank card from the card supply stacker to the printer unit via the shortest course, even if a card cleaner is present between the card supply stacker and the printer unit.
However, the thermal-transfer printer unit in the recording device of this type generally includes an ink-ribbon cartridge and a printer head, resulting in a large size, and further, the card supply stacker is made large so as to store blank cards as many as possible.
The printer unit and card supply stacker have been attempted to be made compact as a matter of course. However, the device with the compact-made printer unit and card supply stacker is low in efficiency of mass producing the recorded cards and disadvantage in use, because it cannot accommodate a sufficient length of ink ribbon and large numbers of blank cards. Thus, there has been a limit in making the components compact.
Under the aforesaid circumstances, the conventional card recording device necessarily has the whole length larger than at least the total length of the card supply stacker and the printer unit, consequently to be formed like a long square pillar and reduce the degree of freedom of design.
Accordingly, it has been attempted to arrange two horizontal card transfer passages one over another in parallel, so as to place the card printer unit on the upper one of the card transfer passages and the magnetic encoder on the lower card transfer passage, as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-131944(A). This conventional recording device has a vertical card transfer passage for transferring the card between the upper and lower card transfer passages and card turning means for delivering the card from one of the upper and lower card transfer passages to the other card transfer passage.
Although the conventional recording device having the upper and lower card transfer passages may be reduced in horizontal length (width), the volume of the device cannot be reduced on the whole, rather increased, because the vertical card transfer passage is added to the horizontal card transfer passages. The practical distance through which the card to be processed travels from the entrance (card supply stacker) to the exit (card discharge container) of the device is practically increased, thus decreasing the efficiency of processing the card.
Accordingly, there has been a need for a compact recording device having rational arrangement of the components so as to efficiently produce various ID cards.